Japan confirms fresh H5 bird flu outbreak

TOKYO, Jan 25 (Reuters) Japan today confirmed another case of the H5 bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki, a farm ministry official said.

But further tests were needed to confirm if the virus, which had killed more than 1,000 birds, was H5N1, she added.

Tests had so far confirmed the presence of H5 subtype influenza at the farm.

Earlier this month, Japan suffered its first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in poultry in more than three years.

No cases of human infection have been reported.

The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement that it had ordered poultry at the farm to be killed and the site to be disinfected.

Movement of people and goods within a 10 km radius of the farm was to be restricted, it added.

In 2004, Japan had four H5N1 poultry outbreaks between January and March, including one in Kyoto in western Japan in which 240,000 chickens were culled and 20 million eggs destroyed.

REUTERS MS PM1634